Moving from Renaissance masterpieces to the striking works of the 20th century, Micromosaic Passion does de Lempicka

It’s fair to say that Powercoin’s ‘Micromosaic Passion’ series has been a huge hit, striking a chord with collectors that’s seen early coins appreciate heavily on the secondary market. It’s easy to see why. It was a clever idea to take a work of fine art and reproduce it using an intricate pattern of flowing segments meant to look like classical mosaic.

The key to making this viable is Smartminting. In the case of this fifth issue in the series, the 65 mm diameter coin has been ‘segmented’ into 8,000 seperate pieces. This requires a mastery of fine detail and a sharply defined strike, both characteristics inherent in the process. It helps that the coins are also borderless, rimless, and free of inscription.

While the first four coins showcased classic and Renaissance works, the fifth has joined sister series ‘Micropuzzle Treasures’ in mining a more modern vein of work. In this case, it’s Polish painter Tempera de Lempicka, an artist with a striking and visually unique style. This specific work, ‘Young Girl in Green’, was painted in 1929 in oil on plywood, and measures 61.5cm by 45.5cm. Painted in the Art Deco style, it currently resides in he Musée National d’Art Modern in Paris. Her work is much admired today, with one painting selling at Christie’s London in early 2020 for a record £16.3 million.

We described Powercoin’s last Micropuzzle coin by Afremov as ‘vibrant’ and that’s also the case here. This is a hugely colourful and visually arresting piece that’s made the transition to the numismatic world with aplomb. The mosaic patterning is done in complete harmony with the subject, not jarring in any way. We do prefer this mosaic series to the puzzle one, and the symbiosis between the original art and the flowing tiling is the main reason for that. Available to order now, just 499 pieces will end up in lucky collectors hands.

TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

Tamara Łempicka (16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), better known as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly stylized paintings of nudes.

Born in Warsaw, Lempicka briefly moved to Saint Petersburg where she married a prominent Polish lawyer, then travelled to Paris. She studied painting with Maurice Denis and André Lhote. Her style was a blend of late, refined cubism and the neoclassical style, particularly inspired by the work of Jean-Dominique Ingres. She was an active participant in the artistic and social life of Paris between the Wars. In 1928 she became the mistress of Baron Raoul Kuffner, a wealthy art collector from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the death of his wife in 1933, the Baron married Lempicka in 1934, and thereafter she became known in the press as “The Baroness with a Brush”.

Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States and she painted celebrity portraits, as well as still lifes and, in the 1960s, some abstract paintings. Her work was out of fashion after World War II, but made a comeback in the late 1960s, with the rediscovery of Art Deco. She moved to Mexico in 1974, where she died in 1980. At her request, her ashes were scattered over the Popocatépetl volcano. (Wikipedia)

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION $20 Palau
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 93.3 grams
DIAMETER 65.00 mm
FINISH Proof
MODIFICATIONS Colour
MINTAGE 499
BOX / COA Yes / Yes